Right Thinking from the Left Coast

India Under Attack Again

A bomb exploded outside New Delhi’s High Court on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and injuring 66, in an act of suspected terrorism in the heart of India’s capital that further heightened concerns about the nation’s security vulnerabilities.

The high-intensity blast occurred at 10:14 a.m. near the courthouse reception area. Officials said they believed the bomb was placed in a briefcase.

Right now, they can’t confirm who it was. But it’s very likely it was Islamists.

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Pakistan is under the spotlight again for hosting Islamist militant groups who export terrorism in the region. On Wednesday, the Indian media reported that Harakat ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI) claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in New Delhi, where at least 11 people were killed. If the claim proves true, there is a danger of tensions escalating between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan less than three years after the two sides were pulled back from the brink of hostilities after the November 2008 Mumbai massacre.

Like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group blamed for the Mumbai massacre, HUJI began life with the support of Pakistan’s controversial Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. HUJI emerged during the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad. Later, the group switched its focus toward fighting India as part of Pakistan’s covert proxy war in Kashmir during the 1990s.

Unlike LeT, however, HUJI’s links to the Pakistani security establishment have long been severed. According to a senior Pakistani military official, some elements of LeT remain friendly to Pakistan, other elements are not, and a third group from within the same organization is said to be openly hostile. By contrast, HUJI — and its different splinter groups — is seen as having long turned against the Pakistani state.